Archive for the Random Category

Summer is almost over, in fact, it’s already over for me. Whitby is a pretty uneventful place to spend 4 months at a time, so there was no question that my blog would go without any updates for awhile.

But for those of you that know me, you are fully aware that this is going to be my fourth (and hopefully final) year at Wilfrid Laurier University. That being said, I plan to go beyond my comfort zone this year and experience a bunch of things that I haven’t had a chance to do up to this point… And now that I have a camcorder it’s going to be hella interesting!

It’s now late April and I think it is safe to say that most people are finished with exams and are either back home or staying at school to work and pursue great employment opportunities..

Although it probably isn’t the same for everyone, I know that last September shortly after receiving my first assignment I couldn’t wait for Christmas break. As always it came ever so quickly and I was thrust into the dreadful winter semester.

It’s funny how when school is going on everyone has 10,000 plans for the summer. The closer summer gets, the more great things we talk about doing and the more anxious we are to finish exams and finally be free, which I guess is all good at the time.

But I don’t know.. Somehow I feel like the novelty of the summer months wore off somewhere between grades 8 and 12. I mean, after I wrote my last exam last week I felt untouchable for an hour or so before experiencing the same degree of boredom that I’ve felt every summer since grade 12. So much so that the highlight of my first few days of summer was receiving my Distance Ed textbooks in the mail today. That’s not to say I’m going to open any of the books anytime soon, I’m not that bored……………………………………..yet.

At the end of the day I’d take this extreme sense of boredom over working in the back of an 18-wheeler at LCBO again.

It’s been a busy month! I’m sure everyone has been on the exam grind lately and I hope that’s going well for all of you. Lucky for me, my grind ends next week which means I’ll be back to blogging regularly.

On that note, I’m going to be adding a new author to my blog over the next little bit as a test run.. Rather than introduce him through the use of my rather extensive vocabulary, I’m going to introduce him through song.

Backdrop

During a late night of studying with a couple of friends our attention spans inevitably fell short and we decided it would be best to take a quick trip to the local convenience store for some brain food (sour keys, skittles and redbull). On the way out of the store we saw a random man with long flowing hair rockin’ out on his guitar while walking down King St.

I’m not sure why but I yelled

– Yo, play Stairway to Heaven right quick! (I’ve never heard the song in my life mind you)

He laughed and kept playing, so I yelled again..

– Yo, bro! Play Stairway to Heaven

He stopped playing, walked up to us and said,

– Sorry guys, I only play originals.

All that meant to me was that it was time to rock the mic in the middle of the street, audio orgasm… Take it in

It was probably the greatest day of my life! I got out of bed, put my clothes on, and made the largest bowl of Frosted Flakes I’ve ever had.

I was too tired to do much studying for my midterm so I only managed to pull off a good 30 minutes (if that) but somehow still managed to go into the exam and kill it minus one or two questions.

On my way home from class I was feeling kind of hungry and in the mood for pizza. So naturally I walked across the street to Four Seasons pizza, grabbed a slice and went over to Forwell’s Convenience store to get a scratch and win ticket considering how lucky I was feeling…

I definitely did not end up winning $1,000,000 or even $100,000 and had to settle for $50,000. I don’t think I’ve ever sprinted home so fast in my life. I got home, called my parents, bragged to all my friends and started planning how I could spend all the money.

I felt that I was beginning to doze off and didn’t trust my roommates so I hid the winning ticket under my pillow case and decided to take a short nap…

And then I woke up.

Unfortunately there was no bowl of Frosted Flakes waiting for me, I ended up getting murdered by the exam, and when I went for pizza there was none yet made. Still broke and not yet famous.

Random thought: Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like it’s almost impossible to go a day without at least one random awkward moment. I find it interesting how uncomfortable some people are in their own skin, or maybe they are just easily intimidated by me who knows..

Earlier today I went to the tattoo parlour to see if they had any openings during reading week so I could finally get my chest piece finished. The conversation lasted for maybe a minute and thirty seconds but there were a good 6 awkward pauses. It was like she was able to look everywhere but at me while we were conversing, but that’s not the worst of it

The shop is by the water so the area is pretty packed with pedestrian traffic. I had the opportunity to walk by two people in the short distance between the door and my car. I don’t know if anyone reading this has ever noticed or even experienced this but when someone is approaching you it is pretty easy to tell whether or not the situation is going to be awkward.

1) They give you a quick look and then all of a sudden they get a text, or a call and immediately have to pull out their phone and proceed to stare at it for 10 strides seemingly pressing the same button over and over.

2) They just happen to notice a crease in their pant leg that they need to look down at but only just until they pass you.

3) The sidewalk becomes the most interesting piece of concrete they’ve ever seen and they have to glare at it.

4) (my personal favourite) The song on their iPod turns sour at that exact moment in time, so they need to look down for 30 seconds to change it.

After passing the first girl who conveniently got a text that she needed to check, I decided to just be obnoxious and make the situation with the next person even more awkward. The next guy walking his dog saw me and started to stare down and his not so interesting dog. So I stared a hole through him the entire time, I’m positive he knew I was staring because I’ve never seen someone look so uncomfortable in my entire life.

I was always taught that humans were supposed to be social beings but apparently not. I don’t think I’ve ever walked by somebody on campus without them trying to find any reason to look away until I had passed.

I’ve been meaning to write this story for awhile but haven’t been able to get around to it until now…

So, Wednesday before last I woke up and got ready for my one and only lecture that day. Some of you may think that having only one lecture for a day is breezy, especially when it’s only 50 minutes.. But until you’ve had “Cell and Molecular Biology” with Lucy Lee you will never realize just how long 50 minutes can be.

I’ve always found it funny how 4 hours can feel like 12 seconds while watching a Fresh Prince marathon for example, while 12 seconds feels like 4 hours while listening to just how interesting Professor Lee thinks micro-filaments are compared to micro-tubules. (For my fellow All Saints graduates, Lucy Lee is like Mrs. Klobucar on steroids)

Unfortunately, her classes are in the one lecture hall that doesn’t have a wireless connection. And Even if it did, my laptop battery lasts for a total of 4 minutes without the power cable. This means that every class I’m forced to play with my blackberry and unfortunately, Brick Breaker loses its flare after about 6 minutes.

I’m not sure what compelled me to do so, but that day I decided it would be fun to play my phone’s bluetooth. Out of boredom I looked up all of the devices in the class and thought it would be a good idea to try to connect to people’s macbooks and annoy the hell out of them with messages (it’s a 300 person class after all). At this point it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, Professor Lee’s Macbook bluetooth would be on and in range for a connection. I turned to my buddy Dan and said “Watch this”…

To hide my identity I thought it best to change my phone’s name to something that wasn’t Shomar Griffiths. I immediately hit and stared at my phone wondering what would happen which is when I heard Dan say “Oh my God”. I looked up to see that the professor’s Power Point presentation turned black and went to her desktop which displayed the message “Sweet Black Romeo Griffiths is attempting to connect with you. Enter password”.

The message was met with laughter and whispers as Dr. Lee repeated the message aloud wondering who it was. I’m the only black male in the entire lecture, and she will never be able to accuse me because I have the race card advantage.

What, ’cause I’m black you think I did it?!
For those who have the balls (or ovaries) I recommend you try this in any boring class you may have. And remember SNITCHES get STITCHES!